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Introduction

Here we continue to look at some labor market measures that provide meaningful alternatives and supplements to the most-publicized ones regularly released by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Duration of Unemployment

Duration of unemployment is an important measure of the economic and personal pain suffered by the unemployed; longer periods of joblessness are obviously much more troublesome for individuals and families — both financially and personally. Long-term unemployment is socially destabilizing and self-perpetuating, as individuals’ skills become rusty and they are perceived as less desirable hires.

St. Louis labor analyst Russ Signorino assessed the slow crawl out of the recession:

A lot of these people are really struggling more than they would have if they were affected by a previous recession because their length of unemployment would have been shorter. They’re having problems paying bills or they’re losing their homes and they’re losing their cars.

This recession is different than previous ones because it is lingering so long, and the duration of unemployment remains very long. The following graph from earlier in 2011 shows that the May 2010 peak of over 20 weeks average time unemployed was well above that of any recession since 1972, and the average as of February 2011 was still well above the peaks of past recessions.

Another figure to look at concerning duration of unemployment is the number of individuals at the high end of this measure. The number unemployed for over 26 weeks is far above that in any recession since 1969, and although trending down over the last year, still about twice as high as the severe recession of the early 1980s. This is a matter of great concern, regardless of improvement in other measures.

Who’s Left out of the Most-Cited Official Unemployment Rate?

Underemployed Workers

The standard unemployment rate is an incomplete picture of the labor market because it does not include those working survival jobs, nor does it include those who have given up on looking for work, but would like to work.

“Survival” job workers not included in the official unemployment rate are those working for less pay than before (sometimes less than half) and/or in a job for which they are overqualified that does not properly utilize their skills, training, and experience.

While these underpaid/overqualified workers are not counted in measuring labor-market weakness (they simply count as employed), the Bureau of Labor Statistics does maintain statistics on those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for part-time.

Both survival job workers and these unhappy part-time workers can be best described as “underemployed.” They are not factored into the most frequently cited unemployment numbers, though they are not employed in their desired fields and/or not employed full time.

Discouraged Workers and Others Marginally Attached to the Labor Force

The BLS separately measures “persons marginally attached to the labor force,” defined as “those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months.”

This group includes “discouraged workers,” whose reason for not looking for work is that they are discouraged by the weak job market. Others considered “marginally attached” might be those who recently began attending school to strengthen their resume or those who have stopped actively looking for work to attend to family matters.

The BLS maintains unemployment-rate statistics that include these marginally attached workers and involuntary part-timers:

• The “U-5″ series includes the marginally attached as well as those defined as unemployed under the standard measure. As of June 2011, it stood at 10.7% (compared to the standard unemployment measure of 9.2%).
• The “U-6″ measure also includes the involuntarily part-time. It stood at a whopping 16.2% in June!

Labor Force Participation Rate

The labor force participation rate is a more extensive way of assessing changes in the labor market. The unemployment rate does not include those who are not actively seeking employment – in many cases they are no longer even counted as “discouraged workers” (if they have not sought work at all for over a year). They are simply not labor force participants.

With the unemployment rate formula being the unemployed/seeking work divided by the labor force, such people are completely omitted from the calculation — both numerator and denominator.

Here’s a look at the long-term labor force participation trend:

The labor force participation rate held steady at 64.2 percent for the first five months of 2011, dropping to 64.1 percent for June.

The participation rate may start climbing when many who have not been looking for work return to the job market in response to better labor market news. This, in turn, may have the perverse effect of increasing the unemployment rate at a time when things are actually starting to improve, because the labor force is the denominator used to calculate the unemployment percentage. When the participation rate increases, the hiring rate must rise proportionally to prevent the unemployment rate from climbing.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the participation rate will climb to 64.7 percent as the recovery strengthens before it slowly declines due to the increase in the number of retired Americans.

Arguably, dramatically lower labor force participation means the labor market is actually worse than the unemployment rate reveals — even worse than it appears when one counts the marginally attached workers. Many non-participants don’t even meet that definition, but still would prefer to be working.

On the other hand, our society may adapt to lower participation rates, such as through a decline in the number of families with young children choosing to have both parents working. The long view (above chart) shows that the drop-off in labor force participation during the current prolonged weak labor market still leaves participation rates higher than they were before the mid-1980s, when participation was in the midst of a long upward trend line that probably reflected the increasing employment of women.

Surveys of Employers’ Hiring Activity and Plans

Employers’ self-reporting regarding hiring is another frequently-reported labor market measure. It may be skewed towards larger employers, depending on survey methodology.

According to a Career Builder-USA Today mid-year forecast issued July 7, 2011:

[N]early half of employers (47 percent) plan to hire new employees from July through December of this year, up from 41 percent in 2010, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals.

The percentage of companies hiring is also higher than last year in some instances:

• Companies hiring full-time, permanent employees 35 percent this year, up from 28 percent in 2010
• Companies hiring part-time employees 15 percent this year, the same as 2010
• Companies hiring contract or temporary employees 12 percent this year, up from 9 percent in 2010

In a survey completed between May 16 and June 3, 2011, 51% of CEOs in the Business Roundtables survey said they will add to payrolls in the second quarter of 2011, down from 52% in the first quarter. Only 11% foresaw job cuts, the same as first quarter.

These results are significantly better than 2010, which began with only 29% anticipating hiring and ended with 45% having this outlook.

Recruiting-Based Measures

Job Openings Advertised Online

As classified job advertising has increasingly moved online, it has become easier to monitor aggregate data on advertised job openings. The number of job openings advertised is another indicator of potentially increasing or decreasing unemployment.

Several major online job boards publicize such data.

The Monster Employment Index has reported the following advertised-jobs trends thus far in 2011:

• April 2011 was up 9% over April 2010 and 7% over the previous month, led by increases in advertised positions in mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction; with manufacturing at highest levels since late 2008, driving growth in
  manufacturing hubs such as Detroit and Cleveland.
• May 2011 was up 7% year over year, with “online job demand reaching the highest reading for the month of May in the index since 2008.”
• June 2011 was up 4% year over year, with wholesale and retail continuing to show “robust annual growth”; information sector expanding, “driven by increased demand in media and telecommunications”; and public administration showing steepest annual year-over-year declines.

Another measure based on job board activity is the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index, which calculates the number of available managerial job openings each month, and measures this against the volume of job openings during the same period in 2007, so that a score higher than 100 means that there are more available jobs than in 2007.

Under this index, managerial job growth in 2011 has picked up, though it is not at an astounding rate. The July 2011 CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index shows:

The job market continues to struggle as employment activity dropped 2.1 points from June to July . . . The index fell to 98.2 points in July, which is the first time it has been below 100 points since last year. On the bright side, hiring activity is still 20 points ahead of levels seen in July, 2009.

A similar measure is the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL). This measure shows online advertised vacancies down 217,000 in July 2011.

Ratio of Unemployed Workers to Job Openings

With more job openings, including those posted in online classifieds, the ratio of unemployed people to job openings will go down (of course it also goes down as the unemployment rate goes down). This is an easy measure to think of in terms of how many people are competing for each job, though of course many factors affect how many qualified people are in fact actively competing for a given job.

The BLS reports:

When the recent recession began (December 2007), the number of unemployed persons per job opening was 1.8. When the recession ended (June 2009), there were 6.1 unemployed persons per job opening. The unemployed persons per job opening ratio has trended downward since the end of the recession and was 4.7 in May 2011.

Here’s a visual:

Aggregated Conference Board Employment Trends Index

As the above should make abundantly clear, there are many different measures relevant to assessing the overall health of the labor market far more than just the unemployment rate and jobs growth numbers that receive the most publicity. The Conference Board recognizes that a more accurate picture may be obtained by aggregating a variety of measures. Its Employment Trends Indextakes into account eight separate measures:

1. Percentage of Respondents Who Say They Find Jobs Hard to Get (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey)
2. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor)
3. Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now ( National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation)
4. Number of Employees Hired by the Temporary-Help Industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
5. Part-Time Workers for Economic Reasons (BLS)
6. Job Openings (BLS)
7. Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board)
8. Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)

The last two measures recognize that employment growth typically lags direct measures of economic activity, as businesses respond to increased demand by hiring additional employees.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index for June 2011 shows a slight increase in June to 100.0, up from Mays revised figure of 99.5. The June figure was up 5.4%from a year ago. The July measure was described as follows:

The behavior of the Employment Trends Index in recent months is consistent with weak job growth, rather than an outright decline. The abysmal uptick in employment in the past two months is not just a reaction to the slowdown in economic activity in the first half of 2011, but also a result of employers becoming downbeat about their hiring needs in the coming months.

This months increase in the ETI was driven by positive contributions from three out of the eight components. The improving indicators include Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance, Percentage of Firms With Positions Not Able to Fill Right Now and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales, which is a forecasted component.

Conclusion

Combined, the alternative measures of employment provide a much more thorough view of what is a very complex economic reality than the few data points most commonly publicized in the media.

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Why You Need A Hook When Writing a Résumé

With 14.1 million Americans currently looking for work, quietly and politely listing your skills on a traditional résumé and hoping your qualifications will speak for themselves just won’t get you noticed.

Even the most conservative among us can build a hook of sorts — an attention-getter — to make sure potential employers hear us loud and clear. With the current competition for jobs, how you present your qualifications so that they grab a potential employer’s attention can be as important as the qualifications themselves.

Whether you decide to take a subtle or more extreme approach, when writing a résumé think about building a hook into your résumé so that a potential employer takes one glance and says to herself, “We gotta meet this person.”

If you’re ready to go all-in and gain some serious attention for yourself, unleash your creativity and start thinking outside that proverbial box.

Get Inspired by Cutting-Edge Résumé Success Stories

Job-seeker Sahas Katta recently created an online résumé for himself based on the Windows Phone 7 interface.

The coolness of his strategy and its execution generated buzz that got picked up by a few mainstream outlets and word spread accordingly. He’s developed several prime job leads as a consequence and thousands of visitors to his site.

Alec Brownstein garnered similar press by landing a job through a Google Ad campaign targeting the agency where he wanted to work.

What makes these two success stories stand out, however, is that both of these individuals had the qualifications to back up their bold moves and both were targeting industries — technology and advertising — in which creativity and technical know-how is valued. So their hooks not only grabbed attention, but also displayed talents prized by their targeted employers.

Weigh Big Risks Carefully When Writing a Résumé

Pasha Stocking went bold, and her big risk paid off with an unintended result when she advertised herself on a billboard with her picture, the message “Hire Me,” and the web address of her online résumé. Instead of landing a job, she parlayed the press coverage into starting her own public relations business.

Going bold is not for the faint of heart — Stocking, for example, an unemployed single mother of three, spent money saved for a down payment on a house for the billboard instead. It seems to have paid off for her, but that may not be a risk everyone has the stomach for. Not to mention, not every industry is as receptive to such creative measures.

Not So Big Ways to Build a Hook and Get Results When Writing a Résumé

If the idea of creating a résumé that features a video game where your work experience pops up when a player slays a dragon makes you panic, don’t worry. The stories above are inspirational, but a powerful hook can be had using more subtle methods. In fact, not every industry or employer is looking for résumés that blur the lines between linen résumé paper and pixels.

Use Links…Wisely

A traditional résumé can include links to a LinkedIn profile or an online portfolio. But there must be something compelling enough in what you present at first glance that will move a busy person to actually click your links and investigate further. Asking a potential employer to take an additional step away from the paper or online résumé is asking a lot, so be sure that what you present right in front of them is persuasive in and of itself.

Use Your Résumé to Present Your Best Self Right From the Start

One of the most effective and simplest ways to build a hook within a more traditional résumé is to include an attention-grabbing headline-style profile at the top of your résumé underneath your contact information.

Tell the potential employer right off the bat what’s so great about you. Use a few bulleted sentences or phrases that grab attention and make the reader want to read more. Include any kind of remarkable recognition, awards, or outstanding sales figures up top where it garners immediate attention. Don’t bury this good information down below in your work experience — put it up top for maximum hook effect.

If you don’t have any hard data or awards, focus on what you do have to offer in way of talent or personality. Make yourself sound like the kind of person employers will want in their office. Here are some examples:

• Recipient of 2011 Chamber of Commerce Forty Under 40 Business Leader Award.
• “Top Gun” sales producer for entire northeast region with over $3M in annual sales.
• Positive leader and mentor who brings out the best in others and unites team to succeed.
• Organized multi-tasker who oversees complex projects from start to finish.

Do Some Research Before Creating Your Résumé Hook

An accounting firm and a mobile app start-up are going to have different standards. What passes as a creative hook for one company might come off as an outlandish gimmick for another. What one company calls polished another might call boring.

Thoroughly research the company to which you are sending your résumé before you plan your hook. If you know someone at the company or within that industry, ask that person what kind of résumés have succeeded before. Get a vibe for the company by studying their website. Is it interactive and updated regularly? Or is it more static with a serious tone?

Use these cues to see just how far you will have to go to make yourself stand out from the other job-seekers. And whether it’s in the form of an animated film or 32-lb ivory paper, no matter how far outside of the box you push your hook, be sure the content and look is polished and professional-looking and captures the best of what you have to offer.

Bill Post, Small Business Research Analyst, provides research on issues of concern to small businesses for 123Print.com Custom Business Cards. Prior to his involvement with 123Print, Bill was a small business owner himself, providing marketing and branding services to other small businesses in the Washington, DC metro area.

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By Laura Berndt, Beth Hanson and George Lenard

Introduction

Recently the EEOC held a public meeting to look into “the emerging practice of excluding unemployed persons from applicant pools and whether such a practice is unlawful under federal discrimination laws.

The press release from the EEOC meeting questioned using current employment as a sign of quality performance (and thus a standard for hiring), stating that any such “correlation is decidedly weak” and that “blanket reliance on current employment serves as a poor proxy for successful job performance.

Discrimination against the unemployed also has negative socio-economic impacts, most obviously on government efforts to lower the high unemployment rate.

Christine Owens, Executive Director of National Employment Law Project (NELP), said:

At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise.

More importantly from the EEOC’s perspective, excluding unemployed persons from consideration for jobs may have a disparate impact on women and racial minorities and thus may be unlawfully discriminatory.

While full documentation of the written testimony on discrimination against unemployed applicants presented at the meeting can be found on the EEOCs website, this post will summarize the highlights.

The Practice of Not Hiring Unemployed Applicants

According to the written testimony of Christine L. Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP):

Stories suggesting systematic exclusion, often blatant, of unemployed workers from consideration for jobs began to emerge early last summer.

Blatant Exclusions in Job Ads

The blatant exclusions include job ads explicitly stating, “Must be currently employed,” and the like.

Other bans on hiring unemployed applicants focus on length of unemployment, usually six months or more being the criteria. This can be described as a requirement of recent employment.

According to Helen Norton, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, employers and staffing agencies have publicly advertised jobs in fields ranging from electronic engineers to restaurant and grocery managers to mortgage underwriters with the explicit restriction that only currently employed candidates will be considered.

James Urban, a partner in the Jones Day law firm, disputed the prevalence of this practice, stating he believed it is not a widespread practice among employers to disqualify applicants on the basis of unemployment. He mentioned having reviewed the help wanted sections from three major metropolitan newspapers, and not having found “one single advertisement in any of these publications stating that the unemployed need not apply [or] … anything remotely close to such a statement.”

Since Norton reached the opposite conclusion, perhaps she simply dug a bit deeper (taking a more thorough and professorial approach) and found information a cursory spot-check by a busy lawyer such as Urban could easily overlook.

HR Professionals Produce Evidence of Exclusion of Unemployed Applicants

Some employers openly admit they prefer employed applicants, even if they don’t go so far as to mention it in job ads. Unfortunately, experts believe there are many more employers who secretly practice the same favoritism. Owens of NELP testified:

There is no official data on how frequently unemployed workers are denied consideration for jobs because of their employment status, but the brazenness of the ads . . . and the experiences jobless workers shared with us suggest the practice is fairly common. That suspicion is borne out by comments of human resource consultants and recruiters willing to go on record about the practice.

Adecco Group North Americas Vice President of Learning and Performance Rich Thompson said that the practice of only hiring applicants who are currently employed is “more prevalent than it used to be.”

New Jersey-based human resources consultant Lisa Chenofsky Singer also has been quoted as saying that recruiters are not interested in applicants who are not currently working:

Most executive recruiters wont consider a job applicant unless they are employed (although most wont admit this.)

Isang Inokon, a health-care recruiter, said it is difficult to place the jobless because employers “want somebody whos wanted,” (i.e., still employed.)

In its testimony before the EEOC, NELP provided the example of a 53-year-old woman from Illinois who lost her job of 19 years as an IT help supervisor in 2008, has been unemployed and unable to find a job since, and has currently exhausted her unemployment benefits and applied for food stamps.

On one occasion, several months into her job search, a headhunter who originally was excited about this womans qualifications told her he would be unable to interview her because she had been unemployed over six months, which was against his companys policy.

Whatever the prevalence of policies of excluding unemployed applicants, recent data shows they have a harder time finding work the longer they are unemployed:

Just over 30 percent of unemployed people who had been out of work for under five weeks were hired in an average month in 2010, while that number dropped below 20 percent for those who had been unemployed for up to 14 weeks, below 15 percent for a jobless duration of 15 to 26 weeks, and so on.

Is Discrimination Against the Unemployed Unlawful Disparate Treatment?

As with any employment decision or practice, the lawfulness of not hiring an applicant because of their lack of current or recent employment must be considered under both of the main theories for proof of employment discrimination: disparate treatment and disparate impact.

The Disparate Treatment Theory of Discrimination

As its name suggests, the essence of the disparate treatment theory is that the complaining individual was treated differently than others because of their protected characteristic (race, sex, age, etc.).

Normally, proof under this theory focuses on:

• Comparisons to other employees who do not have the protected characteristic, and/or
• Challenges to the credibility of reasons the employer gives for its action. If the employer’s stated reason doesn’t hold water, it may be found to be a pretext, or lie, covering up intentional discrimination.

The bottom line under the disparate treatment theory is that the employer intended to treat someone differently for a discriminatory reason, i.e., because of their protected characteristic.

How Exclusion of Unemployed Applicants Might Be Disparate Treatment Discrimination

Helen Norton’s testimony at the EEOC meeting states there are at least two situations in which an employers requirement of current or recent employment might support a disparate treatment claim:

1. If the employer required this of some applicants but not others, based on a protected characteristic, e.g., screened out female applicants because of lack of current or recent employment, but ignored this factor when considering males.
2. If the employer used lack of current or recent employment as a pretextual reason to reject applicants when the true reason was their protected characteristic.

The distinction between the two is subtle. Either way, this would be intentional discrimination and the element of disparate treatment would be present. But in the first situation applicants would not necessarily know that their employment status was a decisive factor, whereas in the second they would be expressly told it was, as a false excuse for discriminatory exclusion based on a protected characteristic.

Does Discrimination Against the Unemployed Have Unlawful Disparate Impact?

In contrast to disparate treatment, under the disparate impact theory unlawful discrimination may be proven despite the absence of any intent to discriminate and despite the fact all individuals were treated the same.

Disparate impact occurs when the employer applies a uniform requirement, such as that all employees hired for a certain position must pass a test or possess a certain qualification.

This may seem to be the epitome of nondiscriminatory, neutral fairness, but the test or standard may disproportionately exclude people having certain protected characteristics. If it does so to a significant degree, and there is no adequate business reason for using it, or there is an alternative that would have a less severe impact, then its use is unlawful.

With respect to a requirement of current or recent employment, disparate impact refers to the possibility that applying this requirement identically to all applicants e.g., rejecting all unemployed applicants regardless of age, race, sex may be unlawful discrimination because while “facially neutral,” it may not be neutral in impact, disproportionately rejecting blacks, women and/or others with protected characteristics.

More information on disparate impact can be found in this earlier post, which highlights the Civil Rights Act of 1991s amendments to Title VII dealing with disparate impact.

NELP found that older workers are more likely than their younger counterparts to be unemployed for long time periods. Bans on hiring those without current or recent employment also more significantly impact racial minorities, who experience higher rates of unemployment.

Disparate Impact on Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Algernon Austin, Director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and Economy at the Economic Policy Institute testified at the EEOCs meeting concerning the impact of not hiring unemployed applicants on racial minorities, specifically African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. He cited these facts:

• The disparity between the unemployment rates of African American and white workers has been at a ratio of two to one since the 1970s. “[A]ll black workers, regardless of educational attainment, are more likely to be unemployed than white workers.”
• Throughout the past decade, Hispanics have faced an unemployment rate 1.5 times that of whites. As with African Americans, this rate is about the same among all levels of educational attainment.
• While the overall unemployment rate of Asian Americans is lower than whites, it is higher among college-educated Asian Americans. Additionally, Asian Americans have experienced a higher long-term unemployment rate than other racial groups.
• Native Americans have an overall unemployment rate 1.7 times that of whites. In some regions, such as Alaska, the rate is as high as three to one.

Austin concluded:

All of this means that any practice which disadvantages currently unemployed workers relative to similar employed workers will likely have a disproportionate negative impact on people of color.

Disparate Impact On Women

Given that women represented only three out of ten jobs lost in the recession, it may appear unlikely that exclusion of applicants based on lack of current or recent employment could have a disparate impact on women (if anything, it might seem to have a disparate impact on men).

But National Womens Law Center Vice PresidentFatima Goss Graves testified in the EEOC meeting that women have fared far worse than men in the recovery.

According to Ms. Graves, between July 2009 and January 2011, men gained 438,000 jobs, while women lost 366,000. One possible reason for this disparity in womens hiring rate could be companies only hiring those who are currently employed. This practice would have the effect of excluding women who have taken time off work to be caregivers to children or other family members and are now ready to re-enter the workforce.

Disparate Impact on Individuals With Disabilities

Joyce Bender, CEO of Bender Consulting Services — who has both professional and personal knowledge and experience regarding living and working with disabilities — said this about employers not hiring unemployed applicants:

[T]he practice of excluding persons who are currently unemployed from applicant pools is real and can have a negative impact on persons with disabilities. . . .

[N]early 80% of Americans with disabilities are not considered to be in the labor force . . . . Of the remaining 20%, 13.6% are unemployed.

The majority of applicants with disabilities do not have work experience, and even if they do, it is often not current work experience. . . .

For many Americans with disabilities, the closing of the door to employment does not occur after the interview, it occurs before it when human resources “gate screeners” prevent the person from even getting an interview. . . .

[C]ountless times I have heard the same excuse: “If only this person had current work experience, we would be happy to interview them.” Hiring managers call it seeking the best qualified talent for their company and no overt discriminatory comment is made, but I am concerned that for some of these employers discrimination is a factor [disparate treatment]. And even where it is not, the impact on workers with disabilities is the same; they are eliminated from the applicant pool [disparate impact]. . . .

I understand that for certain positions, experience is required; however, not every position with a specific employer requires current work experience, even in a high-tech industry. . . .

[O]ur national goals for increasing employment amongst Americans with disabilities will never be met if the only way to gain an interview is to be currently employed.

Is There a Business Justification for Excluding Unemployed Applicants?

In assessing the lawfulness of excluding unemployed applicants or those without recent work experience under the disparate impact theory, if a sufficient impact based on a protected characteristic is shown, the employer is liable for discrimination absent proof of a valid business justification.

Norton testified that in her opinion there is no valid business justification for making current or recent employment a requirement for hiring. She considered, and rebutted, three possible justifications:

1. Some employers may use current employment as a signal of quality job performance, believing that to have retained a position in such a tough economy is evidence of job success.
2. Others “may use current employment as a proxy for relevant experience,” believing those who lack current or recent employment must have outdated skill sets.
3. Some “might use a current-employment requirement simply to reduce the number of applications received” or to screen them down to a manageable number.

Norton addressed these in turn.

First, she noted there are multiple reasons for a person to be unemployed that have no correlation with job success, such as:

• Having been in school or in a training program.
• Having had to leave a job because of a spousal relocation.
• Having lost a job solely because lack of seniority during employer downsizing.
• Having lost a job solely because the employer eliminated an entire division or shut down altogether.
• Having left employment temporarily due to illness, injury, disability, pregnancy, or family caregiving responsibilities.

Second, current employment is not a valid measure of experience for entry-level jobs that do not even require previous experience. And for other jobs, “[m]ore accurate (and less discriminatory) alternatives include more individualized assessments, such as posing problems or questions in interviews or tests that measure relevant contemporary knowledge, as well as asking questions that reveal recent experience or recent education and training.”

Finally, if the purpose is simply the administrative benefit of reducing applications to a manageable number, Norton said this “has no relationship to candidates successful job performance, and thus is not job related for the position in question.”

The Counter-Argument

James Urban of the Jones Day law firm took issue with applying the disparate impact theory to practices of not hiring the unemployed. He said:

[A]ccording to BLS statistics, the most recent unemployment rate for Hispanics is 11.9% percent; for whites the rate is 8 percent. This means that 88.1% percent of Hispanics and 92 percent of whites are employed. The four-fifths rule applied to these numbers reveals that the employment rate for Hispanics exceeds 80 percent of the employment rate for whites. In fact, it is more than 90 percent (88.1 divided by 92) of the rate for whites. The same holds true for the national unemployment rates for African-Americans. The BLS unemployment national averages do not establish disparate impact for any of the identified groups.

Urban appears to be far off the mark, at least if he is implying that “the same” is true of African-Americans’ unemployment rate as that of Hispanics. According to the BLS, the unemployment rate for African-Americans in March was 16.5%, close to twice the white rate of 8.7%.

Urban is applying an 80% rule of thumb for assessing the statistical significance of disparate impact that has long been in use, but is not recognized as an absolute by the courts or EEOC.

He is correctly pointing out that mere disparate impact is not enough; it must meet a standard of significance.

But the fact the EEOC held a meeting on this subject in itself indicates the agency is likely to have grave concerns about the extent of disparate impact that would follow from the racial and other disparities in unemployment discussed above, even if the 80% test is not quite met.

Certainly, Urban posits what could be put forth as a defense in litigation to a disparate impact claim in such situations. But it is far better for employers to avoid litigation by recognizing the weakness of potential business justifications for routinely excluding applicants who are unemployed or not recently employed — assuming the disparate impact of such a practice could be established.

Urban said “employers in most all circumstances are looking to hire the best candidate for the position that is being filled and, to that end, solicit, welcome and consider all qualified candidates regardless of their employment status.”

That is how it should be.

Conclusions

The Benefits of Hiring an Unemployed Candidate

Hiring an already-employed candidate does little to help the economy. While in some instances it may result in more productive use of labor, by placing people in jobs for which they are better suited, in large part it just churns the labor force, imposing hiring and training costs on the employers whose employees are hired away, without creating any net jobs to relieve the serious unemployment crisis.

We all have a stake in the economic recovery. Our current low-demand, low-consumer-spending situation continues to burden economic recovery, and increased employment is critical to increased demand and spending, not to mention deficit reduction.

For an employer with job openings, the masses of unemployed potential applicants provide an excellent opportunity to hire carefully, choosing among many highly motivated candidates. While it is true that some workers are unemployed due to their poor work ethic, the majority of unemployed people have simply fallen upon hard times.

In addition, unemployed applicants who are hired may well prove to be more loyal, longer-term employees, remaining grateful for the opportunity they received at a very difficult time in their lives.

What to Look for in Unemployed Job Applicants

When considering a job applicant who is currently unemployed, it is important for employers to consider the duration of the applicants unemployment and their reasons for leaving their last job. It is also important to evaluate the full extent of the applicants work history and, of course, their qualifications.

If an employer states that they will only consider currently employed job applicants, and this is found unlawful, both they and their recruiters could be liable. For more information, see our previous recruiter liability post.

Discrimination Against the Unemployed Poses Legal Risk.

The EEOC may well sue some employers over this issue in the months to come. It is important for employers to be cautious and fair during the hiring process, because the EEOC will continue to closely monitor this issue and related discrimination claims. It could also become the basis for individual or class-action lawsuits brought by private attorneys.

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Introduction

The following is a guest post by Laura James, who works as a writer for Inside Jobs, a career exploration site set up to provide a place “where people can explore what opportunities exist and learn what paths can take them there.”

Laura describes her own experience in the job market this way:

My job search was terrible. It was confusing, and for many months I was really bad at it. But by the end, I had learned a lot. And then I started working at a career exploration site, where I learned even more.

Here Laura shares some personal job search tips.

Job searching is rough, which I learned from experience in a good chunk of 2009, as I sought my first job after graduating from college. The lack of income isnt necessarily the worst part. The process itself can be the bigger beast to reckon with–it is filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and lack of recognition, which makes for a lousy experience.

However, your experience can be improved. By taking charge of your job search mentality, you can make your time out of work far healthier. And, as luck would have it, improving that experience will make it more likely you will find success.

Here are five of my hard-earned job search tips, based on what finally made my job search infinitely better.

Job Search Tip No. 1–Get Off Major Job Boards.

Responses to job board postings easily number in the hundreds, which means all the time, energy, and hope you put into that application will likely be wasted.

Why? Because employers arent going to look through all three hundred cover letters they receivetheyll grab a handful, and skim through those quickly.

The result is that youll invest yourself in researching companies and writing specialized cover letters, only to be thanked for your effort by a discouraging silence, or a form rejection notice (if youre lucky).

Not only is this a waste of time, it’s demoralizing. So stop doing it, and find avenues that will give you feedback or some validation of your efforts.

Informational interviews and direct company contacts can do this for you–in these forums you interact with real people who provide you a response to your application effort.

Plus, submitting applications for positions found through these avenues is far more effective than submitting applications to positions found on job boards.

If it sounds too extreme to cease all job board efforts, strictly limit the time you spend on this less promising job search method, and focus carefully, following tip 3, below.

Job Search Tip No. 2–Exercise

Not the most intuitive step, but one that will do miracles for your job searching experience.

The wonders of exercise are many–it releases endorphins to make you happier, it improves your blood flow so you can think more clearly, and it gets you in shape, which makes you feel better about yourself.

These benefits will improve your energy and focus for your job search, and will help you shine as a candidate when you interact with others who can help you land a job.

The cost of all these benefits: No more than an hour of your day. For this boost in morale and energy, consider that time well spent.

Job Search Tip No. 3–Be Focused.

Too many job seekers scattershot their job process–they want a job, any job.

While it’s good to have an open mind, not focusing on a particular area keeps you searching at the surface level of many industries. This means that youre looking at only the most visible opportunities, and thus competing with the maximum amount of other job seekers.

Instead, pick a narrower area and dig deep.

• Find the small companies, not just the big names.
• Contact the small companies, even if they dont have postings.
• Network with people in your desired field
• Set up informational interviews to leverage contacts from within the industry.

This focus improves both your chances of success and your mental state.

Oftentimes, the hardest part about making a career move is figuring out where to begin. That uncertainty can induce a tremendous amount of anxiety.

By deciding upon a certain area, you can free yourself from the mental wheel-spinning process of continually reevaluating what you want to do, and instead start to gain traction and move forward towards a goal, however gradually.

Remember, this job wont be permanent; it is just a step in your career evolution. It’s here that youll learn applied skills and experience you can transfer to your next job.

So dont fret about finding your perfect jobfind an area you think is interesting, then focus and go after it.

Job Search Tip No. 4–Get Involved.

Job searching is hard for so many reasons, one of them being that you often invest a huge amount of effort without making any progress.

I got tremendously frustrated with job searching, because after a few months I felt that I hadnt accomplished anything, I hadnt learned anything, and I hadnt made any advancements despite my massive amount of invested time.

So change that. Find volunteer opportunities that will keep you busy, look good on your resume, and help you make connections. Helping out in your field of interest at a local non-profit is a great way to do this.

Getting involved this way does a few things for you:

• It gives you a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your work, which is really important.
• It shows potential employers you like to be productive and keep busy.
• It introduces you to a new group of people whose contacts, friends, family, and so forth become potential networking and informational interview candidates.

Job Search Tip No. 5–Be Proud

Inevitably your job search and unemployed status will come up in conversation. This can be discouraging, even depressing — or you can turn it to your advantage.

Stop mumbling excuses when someone asks you what you do. This is your opening to very briefly tell them what you want to do and seek their help.

Hold your head up, and be excited about your career opportunities. Have goals. Then let people know about them, and see if they can help. When discussing your employment status and job search refer to your volunteer work (see job search tip 4) and job search focus (see job search tip 3).

Not only is this important for your self-esteem, it is important for finding opportunities.

If you say, “Im looking for a job,” people draw a blank and wish you good luck. If you say “Im excited about moving into an entry-level position with an advertising/PR firm,” chances are that sooner or later someone will say something like, “Oh, my friend is a vice president at X firm.”

Looking for work is normal, but if you hide it or act ashamed of being unemployed, people will perceive it — and you — in a negative manner.

Instead, you need to take control by leading the conversation in a positive direction, and suggesting ways for people to help you. Youll be surprised by the effect this has.

Conclusion

Job searching can be a hard process to go through, especially for an extended period of time. But you can define how you let that process affect you. Make the choice that youre going to control your job search, not the other way around — it will make you have a better experience and strengthen your position as a job candidate.

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by craig1black

There is two many ways to get Gulf Jobs

Build your career is not difficult, but you have to struggle a lot to achieve your goals in society that you are capable person and also know the value of life, how to get things quickly, so there is chance for those who want to build their life working in gulf region. There are some steps for those who want to work in gulf to get a good job.

Learning how to write a resume for a job in gulf can be confusing. Are you unsatisfied with the current jobs offers being presented to you? This is your lucky day. Writing a professional resume when looking for a job in gulf will often make you how to get it.

Writing a Resume for a job

you sent resumes to many offers jobs in gulf and you are not satisfied with the results? Take the initiative and draw up one or more resumes for jobs that you have past experience in and know the ins and outs of the jobs. Then your goal is conveying that on paper. You know you’ve got the skills required, but how does the employer know if you don’t know how to tell them? Read below some guidelines to properly edit these jobs in gulf resumes for more chances to be recruited.

As a rule, when you write different applications for jobs in gulf, you must focus on several key elements. This allows the employer to have an idea of exactly what you want out of the jobs. Also, by being specific, you look more professional and eager to land the jobs. Make sure at the bare minimum, that you state the following in your gulf jobs resume.

Jobs position you’re after.

Experience of a career path in the field;

Qualification you have for that jobs;

Schedule and availability

The requested salary or a minimum;

Possible bonuses and availability for making overtime.

Most jobs applications have to meet any employer’s questions. The better you know to promote these applications for jobs; you will have higher chances to be called by the employer for the position.

For those of you that don’t know, jobs in gulf are known to be scam artists, asking you for cash upfront to get you a job in gulf. So, you give them your hard earned 74 dollars, and you expect them to get you a job. Now, when something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t. However, it is pretty difficult to get a job in Gulf, when you are sitting on your sofa in Manchester or Delhi or Iowa or wherever it is that you are, so you think this is the best thing ever, and you pay them. I think that it is quite possible that some people have obtained jobs because it appears that they do sell CVs on to companies. To the uninitiated employer coming to the region or looking at a focused approach, they might spend that minimum of 195 dollars to view CVs. But most likely, jobs in gulf probably mail blast your CV to as many companies as they can. Eventually they get lucky.

Let me put it like this: there are many people out there who want to take your money. They will offer you the world and ask for your money in advance. They say it is to cover the registration process or the cost involved. Be very wary of anyone requesting such payments. What they are probably doing at the minimum, is, taking your cash and putting it in a high interest savings account or dabbling in some investment for the 6 months. So, if you are lucky enough to get your cash back, that’s what has happened to it, but more often than not you won’t. Never send money, credit card or bank account details to anyone to secure or apply for a job. This is actually illegal in the UAE. Any reputable company or agency should absorb the costs involved themselves. After all they are charging the companies for your data.

Where do you send the resume?

When you want to get a job at a company that uses public recruitment ads, they’ll often have a public relations or hiring branch within the company. Details on where to send your resume (if they’re not written in the jobs ad) may be found on the company’s website, or by phone call. Even if the company isn’t hiring, call them FIRST, THEN send a resume and a cover letter. If you call the company first and ask to send your resume, they’ll be able to put a voice to the resume and be more inclined to call you back (obligated).

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Staffing and Temporary Employment As an Important Leading Indicator

Providing employees to employers on a temporary or third-party employment basis is a big business today, one involving numerous staffing and temporary employment companies of all sizes and specialties — and millions of employees. The American Staffing Association (ASA) is a trade association for this business sector.

The ASA funded a detailed study on “Staffing Jobs as Economic and Employment Indicators.” This study, published in June 2009 — as the unemployment rate was nearing its recent peak — found support for “the conventional wisdom that the temporary help industry is a coincident economic indicator and a leading employment indicator.”

The study found temporary employment begins to show growth one to two quarters before growth shows up in overall employment, the unemployment rate, and some other economic indicators.

As a result, it concluded that “a sustained upturn in temporary and contract staffing employment would signal the end of the current recession and suggest that total nonfarm employment would begin to grow about three months later.”

Others concur that temporary hiring is a leading indicator.

Staffing Jobs Reports Support View That US Labor Market Is Now In Recovery

The ASA maintains a staffing employment index. This is information developed independently of the labor department, based on ASA members’ input. Here’s how it’s looked from 2007 to present (each colored line representing one year):

After declining sharply in the second half of 2008, and remaining largely flat in the first half of 2009 — the worst period for job losses as well — the ASA staffing employment index has climbed steadily. Year-over-year comparisons are most useful, because there are significant seasonal variations in temporary and staffing employment for which this index is not corrected.

Specifically, here’s how ASA has analyzed recent changes in its index:

• In the fall of 2010, ASA announced that 21 percent more workers were employed in the staffing industry in August 2010 than August 2009, a positive and large increase in staffing employment. At the time, ASA interpreted the staffing employment increase of 400,000 over the past year as a leading indicator showing the economy was digging itself out of the Great Recession (though unemployment then was still above 9.5 percent).
• In January 2011, the ASA reported a 12.1 percent increase over January 2010.
• In February, the year-to-year gain was equally strong, at 12.2%.
• Most recently, the ASA reported that staffing employment in March 2011 was 9% higher than in March 2010.

Is There a “Dark Side” to the Solid Growth in Staffing and Temporary Employment?

Normally, staffing and temporary employment is a leading indicator because it is strong during a transitional period — before employers have built up the confidence to make more permanent hires. Temporary workers benefit the employer by allowing the employer to see if they like the worker in question — and if a business upturn appears sustainable — before hiring them permanently. This is the conventional wisdom:

When the economy looks bad, temps get let go first, and when it is recovering temps are hired back first. Companies dont want to hire a full-time person until they know they need it.

But now some worry whether the increase in staffing and temporary employment — and the lag in a corresponding increase in permanent hiring — indicate a long-term trend towards an economy relying more on temporary work than permanent hiring.

In December 2010, the New York Times reported:

Despite a surge this year in short-term hiring, many American businesses are still skittish about making those jobs permanent, raising concerns among workers and some labor experts that temporary employees will become a larger, more entrenched part of the work force. . . .

This year, companies have hired temporary workers in significant numbers. In November, they accounted for 80 percent of the 50,000 jobs added by private sector employers, according to the Labor Department. Since the beginning of the year, employers have added a net 307,000 temporary workers, more than a quarter of the 1.17 million private sector jobs added in total. . . .

[T]here are signs that this time around, the economy could be moving toward a higher reliance on temporary workers over the long term.

This year, 26.2 percent of all jobs added by private sector employers were temporary positions. In the comparable period after the recession of the early 1990s, only 10.9 percent of the private sector jobs added were temporary, and after the downturn earlier this decade, just 7.1 percent were temporary.

The Times prepared a graphic from Labor Department statistics that clearly illustrates this change:

The Times quoted Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at the consulting firm Decision Economics, stating that temps are becoming an ever more important part of what is going on.

Possible reasons for increased longer-term reliance on temporary employment include:

• Businesses organizing more around specific projects that can be handled by temporary or contract workers
• A desire for more flexibility, with companies seeking to make hiring and firing easier and less costly. One writer says: “it is not that companies dont want to hire, its more that they dont want to fire.”
• Savings on employee benefits and taxes.

Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer, said:

While ASA members expect . . . growth to continue, they report that businesses are being very strategic about adding back permanent jobs, timing employment increases with sustained increases in demand.

But there is some evidence the traditional temp-to-perm route will be increasingly followed by employers as they see business conditions improving. 17 percent of employers surveyed in a CareerBuilder/USA TODAY job forecast released March 31, 2011, said they are planning to transition some contract or temporary staff into permanent employees in the second quarter.

Conclusion

Of course, it remains to be seen whether there is in fact a significant long-term transformation to extended reliance on staffing and temporary employment. The fact a higher proportion of recent hiring is of this type may merely reflect a slow, uncertain recovery from a severe recession — one that was brought on not by ordinary business cycle fluctuations, but by a major financial crisis.

As we read the economic tea leaves, there are many other relevant measures of employment recovery worth watching.

Thanks to Beth Hanson for her assistance with this series.

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by kwalk628

People Search – Employment Screening Background Check

Background check was often done when someone applies for a job but mostly for those that requires high security or position of trust like a school, hospital, bank, airport, in law enforcement, etc.

It is traditionally done by the police but is now most often purchased as a service from a private business. Information usually includes the following: past employment, credit worthiness, and criminal history. These checks are important because they allow better informed and less-subjective evaluations to be made about a person.

However, they also pose risks including improper and illegal discrimination, identity theft, and violation of privacy. Pre-employment screening Pre-employment screening is used to verify the accuracy of an applicant’s claims as well as to discover any possible criminal history, workers compensation claims, or employer sanctions.

The problem screening tries to counter A number of annual reports, including BDO Hayward’s Fraudtrack 4 and CIFAS’s (the UK’s fraud prevention service) ‘The Enemy Within’ have showed a rising level of major discrepancies and embellishments on CVs over previous years.Such business fraud cost United Kingdom businesses 1.4 bn in 2005Almost half (48%) of organizations with fewer than 100 staff experienced problems with vetted employees. 39% of UK organizations have experienced a situation where their vetting procedures have allowed an employee to be hired who was later found to have lied or misrepresented themselves in their application.

However, recent research shows a reverse in the trend. They found that in the 2006/7 period CV discrepancies had fallen by 31% to 13%.

The Market

Larger companies are more likely to outsource than their smaller counterparts – the average staff size of the companies who outsource is 3,313 compared to 2,162 for those who carry out in-house checks.

Financial services firms had the highest proportion of respondents who outsource the service, with over a quarter (26%) doing so, compared to an overall average of 16% who outsource vetting to a third party provider. The construction and property industry showed the lowest level of outsourcing, with 89% of such firms in the sample carrying out checks in-house. there for making the overall average 16%. This can increase over the years.

Types of Checks

Employment References Education Verification – School grades, degree and any professional qualifications obtained Character Reference Check Gaps in employment history Identity and Address Verification – whether the applicant is who he or she claims to be.

Generally includes verification of the candidate’s present and previous addresses. Can include a money laundering, identity and terrorist check and one to verify the validity of passports. Whether an applicant holds a directorship Credit History – bankruptcies

Criminal History Report Regulation

The Financial Services Authority states in their Training & Competence guidance that regulated firms should have: Adequacy of procedures for taking into account knowledge and skills of potential recruits for the roleAdequacy of procedures for obtaining sufficient information about previous activities and trainingAdequacy of procedures for ensuring that individuals have passed appropriate exams or have appropriate exemptionsAdequacy of procedures for assessing competence of individuals for sales roles

The Financial Services Authority’s statutory objectives: Protecting consumersMaintaining market confidencePromoting public awarenessReducing financial crime Pre-employment screening in the US Laws Due to the sensitivity of the information contained in consumer reports and certain records, there are a variety of important laws regulating the dissemination and legal use of this information.

Most notably, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulates the use of consumer reports (which it defines as information collected and reported by third party agencies) as it pertains to adverse decisions, notification to the consumer, and destruction and safekeeping of records. If a consumer report is used as a factor in an adverse hiring decision, the consumer must be presented with a “Pre-adverse action disclosure,” a copy of the FCRA summary of rights, and a “notification of adverse action letter.” Consumers are entitled to know the source of any information used against them including a credit reporting company.

Types of Checks

There are a variety of types of investigative searches that can be used by potential employers. Many commercial sites will offer specific searches to employers for a fee. Services like these will actually perform the checks, supply the company with adverse action letters, and ensure compliance throughout the process.

It is important to be selective about which pre-employment screening agency you use. A legitimate company will be happy to explain the process to you. Many employers choose to search the most common records such as criminal records, driving records, and education verification.

Other searches such as sex offender registry, credential verification, reference checks, credit reports and Patriot Act searches are becoming increasingly common. Employers should consider the position in question when determining which types of searches to include, and should always use the same searches for every applicant being considered for one position.

Reasons

They are frequently conducted to confirm information found on an employment application or rsum/curriculum vitae. They may also be conducted as a way to further differentiate potential employees and pick the one the employer feels is best suited for the position. In the United States, the Brady Bill requires criminal checks for those wishing to purchase handguns from licensed firearms dealers. Restricted firearms (like machine guns), suppressors, explosives or large quantities of precursor chemicals, and concealed weapons permits also require criminal checks.

Checks are also required for those working in positions with special security concerns, such as trucking, ports of entry, and airline transportation. Other laws exist to prevent those who do not pass a criminal check from working in careers involving the elderly, disabled, or children.

Possible Information Included The amount of information included on a check depends to a large degree on the sensitivity of the reason for which it is conducted-e.g., somebody seeking employment at a minimum wage job would be subject to far fewer requirements than somebody applying to work for the FBI.

Criminal and incarceration records Birth certificate, citizenship, immigration, or legal status in the country Litigation records Employers may want to identify potential employees who routinely file discrimination lawsuits.

It has also been alleged that in the U.S., employers that do work for the government do not like to hire whistleblowers who have a history of filing qui tam suits. Driving and vehicle records Employers in the transportation sector seek drivers with clean driving records–i.e., those without a history of accidents or traffic tickets.

Drug tests are used for a variety of reasons–corporate ethics, measuring potential employee performance, and keeping workers’ compensation premiums down. Education records These are used primarily to see if the potential employee had graduated from high school (or a GED) and in fact received a college degree, graduate degree, or some other accredited university degree. There are reports of SAT scores being requested by employers as well.

Employment records

These usually range from simple verbal confirmations of past employment and timeframe to deeper, such as discussions about performance, activities and accomplishments, and relations with others. Financial information Credit scores, liens, civil judgments, or bankruptcy may be included in the report.

Licensing records

A government authority that has some oversight over professional conduct of its licensees will also maintain records regarding the licensee, such as personal information, education, complaints, investigations, and disciplinary actions. Medical, Mental, and Physiological evaluation and records Military records Although not as common today as it was in the past fifty years, employers frequently requested the specifics of one’s military discharge.

Social Security Number (or equivalent outside the US).

A fraudulent SSN may be indicative of identity theft, insufficient citizenship, or concealment of a “past life”. Polygraph test Also known as a psychophysiological detection of deception (PDD) examination. Other interpersonal interviews Employers will usually wish to speak with potential employees’ references to gauge employability. More intensive checks can involve interviews with anybody that knew or previously knew the applicant–such as teachers, friends, coworkers, and family members.

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